{"id":34935,"date":"2023-04-02T20:26:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T02:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/strong-early-marks-set-at-pine-river-invite\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:21:33","slug":"strong-early-marks-set-at-pine-river-invite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/strong-early-marks-set-at-pine-river-invite\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong early marks set at Pine River Invite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joel
Joel Priest\/Special to The JournalMontezuma-Cortez\u2019s Zander Cruzan, show in an archived photo, continued to expand his repertoire Saturday at the Abel Velasquez Invitational, topping the field in the triple jump with a debut mark of 41 feet, 7 inches.<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journ<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For many of the track and field veterans, the early season competitions provide a good opportunity to see where their road back to personal records and state appearances will begin. For the newcomers, the first couple of meets involve a mix of finding their best events, while also seeing where they stack up against the rest of the region.<\/p>\n

At the Pine River Invitational in Bayfield, the Four Corners high schools all converged to establish a preliminary pecking order for the big meets ahead.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez posted the highest team finishes in both boys and girls action among the area schools, as the Panthers took third as a team for the boys, while the girls captured fifth in the meet.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek\u2019s boys bested the San Juan Basin League competition, taking home sixth overall, while the Mancos girls edged out their league opposition, finishing sixth in their field.<\/p>\n

As has become a familiar tune over the past couple of seasons, M-CHS senior Zander Cruzan dominated the sprints, leading M-CHS with victories in the 100 meters (11.12 seconds), 200 (23.10), high jump (5 feet, 8 inches), and part of the winning 4\u00d7100-meter relay squad (44.67).<\/p>\n

Cruzan\u2019s exploits were joined by several top-five performances for head coach Bob Archibeque\u2019s group, as junior Raul Soto took fourth in the 300 hurdles (47.30), while Ryan Pipkin and Houston Hurst tied for fourth in the pole vault, both clearing 9 feet.<\/p>\n

The Panthers added third-place relays in the 4\u00d7400 (3:56.26) and 4\u00d7800 (10:00.39), while Dalton Muzzy added a sixth-place throw in the shot put (30 feet, 8\u00bc inches), Ben Hoffman placed sixth in the 1,600 (5:32.13), and Austin Wood took sixth in the long jump (18 feet, 7 inches).<\/p>\n

For the Panthers girls, freshman Marlee Mack stepped into the spotlight, winning the 100-meter hurdles (17.43) to take home the top individual placement for M-CHS. She added a fourth-place dash in the 100 (14.05), and took home third in the long jump (14 feet, 8\u00bd inches).<\/p>\n

The youth movement for the Panthers included more top finishes, as Tatom Endres took second in the pole vault (6 feet), and Madeline Pipkin added a fourth-place finish in the same event (5 feet, 6 inches). Endres added a fourth-place run in the 400 meters (1:13.68), while the Panthers 4\u00d7100-meter (57.82) and 4 x 200-meter (2:04.64) relays would both claim fourth.<\/p>\n

Olivia Yarbrough took fifth in the high jump (4 feet, 6 inches), while Danielle Billie finished as the top Panthers thrower, claiming seventh in the discus (68 feet, 9 inches) and ninth in the shot put (23 feet, 5\u00bc inches).<\/p>\n

For the Mancos girls, balance across the various events have helped the Bluejays to recent success in the SJBL, and the 2023 edition appears to have some of the same dynamics.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays scored top finishes in the distance events, where Brooke Jabour, Adaline Kearns, and Teagan Archer placed second through fourth in the 800 meters, which complemented Archer\u2019s fourth-place run in the 1,600 (6:15.78) and Jabour\u2019s sixth-place sprint in the 100 (14.50) and a leap of 14 feet to claim sixth in the long jump.<\/p>\n

Mancos added a sixth-place race in the 300 hurdles from Claire Goodwin (56.01), and a runner-up race in the 4 x 100 (56.58) to round out the top six placements.<\/p>\n

On the boys side, the Bluejays earned a fourth-place 100-meter dash from Jonah Ritter (12.08) to go along with a third-place run from the 4\u00d7200-meter relay (1:42.13). Mancos finished eighth in the team scoring in the meet.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek\u2019s boys look to make a serious run at the league title, and their early season meets have showcased the deepest Bulldog squad in a long time. A pair of double-victors \u2013 Kade Hankins in the 110 hurdles (17.23) and 300 hurdles (44.70), and Quaden Huffaker in the long jump (19 feet, 1\u00bd inches) and triple jump (38 feet, 11\u00bd inches) \u2013 look to play a large role in the Dove Creek season ahead.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs add depth in the sprints with Bobby Pastorius (sixth \u2013 110 hurdles and seventh \u2013 300 hurdles) and Bowdy Seely (eighth \u2013 800 meters), while Asher Nye took seventh in the shot put (30 feet, 7 inches).<\/p>\n

For the Dove Creek girls, senior Trista Barnett looks to return to the state championships, taking first in the 300 hurdles (54.12) and third in the 100 hurdles (18.72). Freshman Ambrynn Huffaker claimed ninth in the 100 (15.08) as the Dove Creek girls took ninth as a team in the invite.<\/p>\n

Both the Dolores boys and girls programs showed early promise, bringing their largest squad in years into the season. The Bears picked up a fourth-place mark in the 110 hurdles from junior Ty Gaddis (20.10) to claim the highest finish for the boys team.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Tray Traweek added a seventh-place run in the 400 (1:02.09) while the 4\u00d7200-meter relay squad duplicated the feat with a time of 2:04.76.<\/p>\n

For the girls team, the Bears claimed top spot in the 4\u00d7800 relay (12:29.53), while adding a third-place race in the 4\u00d7400 relay (5:07.31). Siena Parr took fourth in the 3,200 meters (15:27.24), while Elia Lowe and Maya Lowe took sixth in the 1,600 (6:38.39) and 400 (1:14.66), respectively. Samantha Abate added a seventh-place finish in the 300 hurdles (1:01.33) to round out the top eight finishers for the Bears.<\/p>\n

The Dolores girls placed seventh in the team competition, while the boys team finished ninth. Durango took home both the boys and girls team titles in runaway fashion.<\/p>\n

Many of the same competitors will take to the track again this upcoming weekend, as Mancos hosts their annual invitational on Friday evening, before taking on the Abel Velasquez Invitational in Ignacio on the following day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

area programs establish early season benchmarks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,861,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-high-schools","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82806,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34935\/revisions\/82806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34935"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}